The journalist thrust a microphone into my face and demanded that I gave a full history of the Manor House from its origins as an eighteenth century farm house to the severe fire damage of July 2014.

As we travelled on the buggy from the tennis court to the main entrance I recalled what I could of the house’s history, including its long association with the Cadbury family and the University of Birmingham. My interviewer was most interested, however, in the period when I lived there as an undergraduate. I reminisced about those happy days of the 1980s, highlighting all the fabulous formal dinners, parties and balls.

The buggy then suddenly, and unexpectedly, transformed into an open-topped tank. The interview came to an abrupt halt when the caterpillar tracks climbed some boxy hedging and we were thrown out onto the lawn.